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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22760059">death do us part</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexanderlightweight/pseuds/alexanderlightweight'>alexanderlightweight</a>, <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/alxndrlightwoods/pseuds/alxndrlightwoods'>alxndrlightwoods</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Shadowhunters (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Art, Blood and Gore, Blood and Violence, Canon-Typical Violence, Dark Magic, Embedded Images, Grief/Mourning, Happy Ending, Immortality, Inspired by Art, M/M, Murder, Rituals, Self-Cannibalism, Self-Harm, Temporary Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 11:41:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,691</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22760059</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexanderlightweight/pseuds/alexanderlightweight, https://archiveofourown.org/users/alxndrlightwoods/pseuds/alxndrlightwoods</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Magnus finds death easily enough.  </p><p>He’s walked side by side with death since he was a child, he still remembers the way now.  </p><p>Death lies within him, as it lies within all, whether they wish for it or not.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>259</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>DL;DR: Shadowhunters Fic, SHBingo, Valentine's Day 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>death do us part</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>A fic for the Vday 2020 event over at the  <a href="https://discordapp.com/invite/RhZPtsd">The Hunters Moon</a> (the Shadowhunters Bingo Discord server which is a fun place to talk about Shadowhunters so stop over if you'd like).  </p><p>It's based on and inspired by Saeth (who also betaed it!) from <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/alxndrlightwoods/pseuds/alxndrlightwoods">alxndrlightwoods</a> art fill for the event which is below and gorgeous.</p><p>Also filling my Portal square for my SH Bingo!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    
  </p>
</div><hr/><p>It’s been a long, but productive day of research in the Spiral Labyrinth when Magnus feels a pulse, a hollow echo in his chest as magic unravels from his core.  It tears free frantically, finding the cracks in the Labyrinth's wards and Magnus takes a steadying breath as he tries to gather his emotions.</p><p>
  <em> Alexander. </em>
</p><p>Alec who is supposed to be safe and warded and <em> waiting </em> for him in Idris.  Who said his goodbyes to Magnus with a soft smile and warm kisses, Alec who his magic is so desperate to aid that it leaves Magnus almost weak in its haste to get to him.</p><p>Magnus forms a portal without a conscious choice. His peers gather round, voices rising in concern and both allies, friends, and rivals alike reach out.</p><p>He ignores them all.</p><p>The magic of the Labyrinth fights against him. It wastes precious time where he could be by Alec’s side and in return he raises his hand. Magic strikes like lightning, summoned to each fingertip and when he curls his hand into a fist it follows. The wards of the labyrinth crumple as he dictates and he leaves the refuge shuddering in his wake as the portal finally forms.</p><p>There is no greater need than getting to Alec’s side as quickly as possible.</p><p>The magic of his father, of the princes of hell and the fallen angels surges at call of its king and it answers his demand.</p><p>He steps through the portal onto the hallowed ground of Idris and Magnus is ready to rip through whatever magic may try to keep him away from Alicante but there is... nothing.  </p><p>He’s greeted by acceptance and his own wards smoothing over him, as he is every day he leaves and returns to a place he only calls home because of Alec.</p><p>Nothing hinders him and yet still, there lies a hollow ache in his chest where that magic he wove into Alec’s very being once resided.  There is no devastation, no wreckage in sight but for the ache he feels where their marriage bond once lay.  </p><p>Shadowhunters part for him, silent in their deference but the very air reeks with their sorrow.  This is not the respect he’s built for himself as their High Warlock, this is solemn reverence for the dead.</p><hr/><p>Magnus stares at the body of his husband, still warm to the touch despite the fact that Magnus knows he’s been dead for hours.  </p><p>“He’s gone Magnus.”  </p><p>A voice says and it’s Jace.  Of course it’s Jace. Who else would be sent to comfort and confront him other than the lingering part of his dead husband’s soul.</p><p>“How?”  He asks, even though the why and the how is far less important than finding a way to fix this.</p><p>“Poison.  An unseelie speciality, we don’t think it was meant for Alec, that part was an accident but-” here Jace scoffs and his voice is thick and wet with tears, “that’s almost worse, isn’t it.  That he died because of an accident. He should have died in battle.”</p><p>Magnus shakes his head in disgust.  Trust a nephilim to focus on the valor of how someone was lost, rather than that they were lost at all.  </p><p>“Will you protect him, until I return?”  He asks instead, his hand cupping Alec’s face and he can almost imagine his love turning into his touch, but he lies still.</p><p>“Of course I will, but Magnus.  He’s dead. Not even your power is enough to revive him and we both know that he wouldn’t come back the same.  Please, don’t do anything rash. We have three days until we send him to Raziel, he would want you to be here and the Clave won’t stop you from it.”</p><p>“His soul is still there, Jace.  He is protected in ways that no other being in this world or the dimensions hidden in it is.  I can bring him back, just keep him safe for me.”  </p><hr/><p>Magnus finds death easily enough.  He’s walked side by side with death since he was a child, he still remembers the way now.  Death lies within him, as it lies within all, whether they wish for it or not.</p><p>They lurk in the shadows and in the light.  You cannot hide from death but sometimes death hides from you.  And as Magnus summons a portal and steps through into the still cracked and damaged land of Edom, whose sand shifts welcomingly beneath his boot and whose wind stirs slowly up to greet him, he wonders what it will take to meet face to face.  </p><p>Yet at the end, with all this power.  With all of his might. There is no void for him to look into and no face to greet him.</p><p>Tears stream down his face and sting the self-inflicted cuts of his lip.  Salt sears tracks down his dusty cheeks and leaves a bitter taste on his tongue and death slips through his grasp, the power to save Alexander with it.</p><p>Magnus pulls apart his shirt, ripping the little buttons from their delicate seams, rendering soft expensive fabric into shred as he places his hand against his own chest.  His nails gleam blue with soft delicate sparkles like starlight. Alec had picked it out for him.  </p><p>He’ll do so again.</p><p>Because death lies within him.</p><p>The first bite of his own nails against his skin was an almost familiar, welcome pain but even that moment of comfort didn’t last. </p><p>It <em> hurt. </em></p><p>A different, more shallow pain than the loss of Alec.  It was bright, more blinding and as excruciating as it was, it was a sudden and welcome relief to be absorbed by the physical pain and not the emotional.</p><p>He’d once told Alec that pain wasn’t that simple.  That outer pain couldn’t overpower the inner and oh, how that had been an understatement.  </p><p>No matter what agony he inflicts upon himself, or forces himself to endure, it does nothing to distract from the misery of Alec being gone.  It only adds to his pain until he feels that agony itself will consume him.</p><p>His fingertips pierce through his skin.  Deep into sinuous muscle and thick, hot blood until they meet the hard bone that once had been a protective barrier to his heart but now is a cage to rip through.  </p><p>He isn’t sure what echoes louder, his scream of Alec’s name or the crack of his own rib cage.  </p><p>Bone splinters, blood splatters and Magnus’ voice cracks on a shout as his lungs run out of oxygen but pain leaves him hoarse.  He tastes blood on his tongue, smells iron in the air and when he looks down, he sees his own heart in his hand, blood up to his elbow and wasted on the sands of Edom.  His bones protruding from the cavern of his chest. </p><p>It’s a relief, but he isn’t done yet.  </p><p>Tears continue to run down his face but he isn’t sure which pain caused them.</p><p>The first press of his lips to his heart is the parody of a similar act, a morning kiss to ease Alec into the dawn of wakefulness. </p><p>Now, Magnus sinks his teeth into thick, heavy muscle and coats his tongue with his own viscous blood as he chews and swallows and bites and chews again.  </p><p>He doesn’t stop until he’s done, heartless and with only magic keeping him alive in place of a bleeding core.</p><hr/><p>Magnus is not reborn on Edom’s sand, with his own blood on his lips and his jaw and chest stained with it. </p><p>He is instead anointed as king.  As a leader. An emperor. Bathed in the power of the countless dead and coronated by his own sacrifice. </p><p>Asmodeus hadn’t lied when he’d claimed them royals but not even he could have seen how powerful Magnus would become.</p><p>His heart regrows.  Stronger than before.  And blood drips down the cracks of his chest even as magic seals it shut.  He runs his fingers through the liquid and stares. What once had been red is now dark and glistening.  It catches the light as though it is a hungry abyss and devours it. It smears across his skin and even as he uses magic to wash himself clean, it stains his nails a glossy reminder of just <em> what </em> he’s become.</p><p>It’s a deed well done and Magnus feels the power he’s consumed well inside him.  The voices of hundreds of thousands upon millions upon billions of unrecognizable screams echo in him from the inside out... and yet not a single one is Alexander.  </p><p>Centuries Magnus has lived and rarely has he ever suffered the chill of truly being cold.  He’s been cold, but it wasn’t until he lost his magic that it had ever settled deep into his bones.  A shiver that he couldn’t shake and for a brief time, like now, he’d had no Alec to keep him warm.</p><hr/><p>The halls of Alicante are cold and silent and sorrowful when he returns.  It is not the joyous walk he expected and his triumph sits coldly on his chest.</p><p>"Magnus, I'm so sorry.  But the bond broke when he died.  It was completely gone. No matter what magic you used to keep his body warm, he was gone.  I never would have let them do this if I'd thought he could be saved. We didn’t want to lose you too, Alec wouldn’t have wanted that."  Jace says and once again he is the first to greet Magnus, the only one in fact and it's desperate. His voice quakes with the weight of his grief and the burden of regret and even as he speaks, his hand presses to where his parabatai rune once lay.  </p><p>Magnus stops at the marble slab that holds Alec’s mortal body.  The magic he’d projected into Alec is now weak and cracked. Not even all of Magnus’ love and protection were enough to keep Raziel from claiming what was freely returned to him.</p><p>If not for the fact that Magnus knows he will need all of his magic and all of his strength in the days to come, he would smite Alicante until it was nothing more than a whisper of a myth.</p><p>Alexander <em> saved </em> them time and again.  <em> Magnus </em> saved them, and this is the courtesy they get in return.</p><p>A cold, empty body to greet Magnus instead of the warmth and love of his husband.</p><p>Magnus broke Edom from existence.  He tore the power of death from the grips of the abyss. He can do the same here.</p><p>First however, is retrieving Alec.</p><p>Once, Jace and Isabelle’s presence would have been enough to make Magnus think that he could leave Alec protected among them.  However, that faith no longer holds and as he doesn’t have the time to take Alec elsewhere, he must make do.</p><p>The wards of Idris and Alicante know him, as he knows them.</p><p>He re-crafted them from the strands of centuries and while the nephilim will never admit it, their legacy is drenched in more blood and ichor than Magnus’ ever will be.</p><p>However like calls to like and it means that from the moment Magnus stepped foot into Alicante, was welcomed as hallowed and hale among their halls, that power was bequeathed to him.</p><p>All of that sacrifice, all of that terror, the lust for power and heirs and notoriety sing to him and he captures that melody and crafts before him a glorious cage.  Not to keep someone in —<em> there is no one left to keep </em> — but to keep others out.</p><p>Alec’s body glows the burnt umber of Edom’s rising moon and above his chest tendrils of gold pulse and beat until they form the heart that Magnus’ magic preserved. </p><p>It’s beautiful.</p><p>Iridescent in gold at first and then as Magnus’ power and anger feed it, it turns a hungry, vicious red.  Drops of magic like blood drip down to splatter against Alec’s chest. </p><p>He looks like someone ripped his heart out.  Like they did to Magnus, when they took Alec from him.</p><p>“Magnus, they’re giving him to you.  For burial.” Jace says behind him, “if that’s what you need, you can take him.  The Clave wants to honor your marriage, your relationship with Alec and all you’ve done for us.  They’re sorry, but they couldn’t wait. They’d already delayed it to try and give you time but you didn’t come.”</p><p>They're all pretty <em> empty </em> words.  Like Alexander’s body is a pretty, empty vessel.</p><p>“I’m not going to ask you to watch over him, my magic will do that better than you ever could.”  Magnus says and once he would have felt a tender stab of sympathy at the haunted pain his words bring Jace, but no more.  “However if you wish to keep the rest of your people from harm, instruct them not to touch him. I was lax in my protection of him once, I will not make that mistake twice.”</p><p>“Magnus, please.  We’re all grieving.  But you’re family too, Alec loved you.”</p><p>“You think death changes that?  He loves me <em> still. </em> He was going to give to me every bit of his future, Jace.  He was going to let me have it all, have him for all of eternity until every star was blinked out of existence.  You lost him for a day. I lost him forever.”  </p><p>“Magnus-“ Jace trails off and it’s clear by the look of sorrow on his face that he doesn’t know whether to believe Magnus, or simply to allow him his delusions. </p><p>They aren’t delusions.  They are promises. Promises that Alexander made to Magnus with love in his voice and devotion in his soul and sincerity in his heart.  A heart that Magnus keeps beating, as he will always keep it alive as he goes to take back a soul that <em> belongs </em> to him.</p><hr/><p>Magnus has never summoned an angel before.  But he’s also never lost his husband and tore out his own heart either.  Out of those three things, this is the simplest. </p><p>The ritual is simpler than it should be.</p><p>Then again, Magnus has more at his disposal then any warlock before him has ever been allowed to boast.</p><p>He cuts corners and patches holes in the ritual until all he needs is angel blood.</p><p>There’s a safe, in Alexander’s office.  It holds vials of blood that Magnus warded with not only magic but promises.</p><p>He discards all of those for this moment, for this chance. </p><p>Raziel descends in gold and silver rays that echo the chorus of the sun.  Magnus feels no luxury in beholding the sight of an angel, no awe grows in him and if anything, anger is bitter on his tongue.</p><p>“Warlock, what have you done?”  Raziel asks, because of course he does. He stands before him, stern and strong and with wings that stretch out so far and brightly that Magnus cannot see how big they truly are.</p><p>“I’ve done what too many have tried but everyone else failed to do.  I conquered death.”</p><p>“There was a reason the title remained empty.  You have cursed yourself in a way that no mortal has ever dared.”</p><p>“I’m a warlock, immortality is in my blood.  I was <em> never </em> mortal.”</p><p>“You were, in all the ways that it could count.  Nearly every being is mortal in some fashion.”</p><p>“Enough of these mundane platitudes.”  Magnus says, quiet and serious. “I want what is mine, Alexander Lightwood-Bane’s soul.  </p><p>“I am not a being to be summoned on a whim.  Once already have I graced this world with my presence in this century alone and conqueror of death or not, I will n-”</p><p>Magnus reaches out with his nails that cut through the angelic grace, twisting the glowing power to match his darkness.  “You will answer to <em> me, you idol of a fallen god.  </em>This is no whim.  I do not plead nor bargain or summon you to strike a deal.  There is no wish for you to grant me. This is a demand. You will release to me my husband’s soul, or I will tear it from your impious hands.”</p><p>Raziel rips free and rises before him and his snarl quakes the earth until the very mountains shake. </p><p>“The man you call yours is one of my heirs.  A mortal legacy of heaven. I would no more gift you his soul then I would have let you live had I known what you would become.”</p><p>“A pity for you then, that even an angel cannot smite death.”</p><p>Magnus pulls and the earth cracks from the force of an angel's death wail.  Raziel splits. Two halves of his giant wings dwarfed by the presence that forms around Magnus. </p><p>Out of a petty remembrance for the trite mundane tales, he forms a scythe and he harvests from Raziel.  The angel’s heart he stores for himself but there, clutched in Raziel’s bosom is Alexander’s soul.</p><p>It sings to him.  A piteous cry that echoes in his ears like the most tender of birdsong and he cups it in his hands and feels it pulse in remembrance.  It curls into his touch and hides in his caress. Even in death, Alexander knows who he is. Magnus finds comfort in that.</p><hr/><p>“Magnus, what have you done?”</p><p>Jace greets him, for the third time but this time, his eyes are dark with pain and his hand rests on the hilt of his sword.  Alicante is dark, the sun gripped in the embrace of an eclipse, as if the very land knows it’s god is dead.  </p><p>“I’ve done what no one else would have done, or could.  I will be taking my husband now.” Jace falters, clearly torn with interrogating him and relief that Magnus is finally going to take Alec.  Magnus pauses as he passes him.</p><p>There is a piece of Jace that was lost, when Alec died.  A part of his soul that was harvested by Raziel and Magnus lifts his fingers, spinning magic until it glows with an eerie light.</p><p>“For your loyalty, I reward you.  What you've lost, is now returned to you.  I free you from your burdens, Jace Herondale.  You are whole again." Magnus presses his fingers to Jace's chest as he speaks.  The tips glowing and then his palm firm against him as Jace gasps, shock in his eyes as his soul is returned.  Never to be parted again.</p><p>The small gold sliver of soul that he’d extracted from Alec’s soul eagerly leaps to return to its owner.  Both Jace and Alec are freed from a commitment to their destroyed angel.</p><p>Magnus barricades the hall with magic.  Tendrils of dark frost crack across the stained glass windows.  Despite the protective measures he takes, he’s not worried. Jace is in too much pain and shock for him to alert the nephilim and even if he did, what use would they be against him?  The savior of Alicante and the warlock who conquered death and smote an angel.</p><p>Alec’s soul is solemn orb, as beautiful and ethereal as the moon.  Silver and shadowed with the craters of his life and Magnus feels pulled to it, as the tide is to the waning moon.  </p><p>He lets it rest gently on the sheets that cover his husband and pulls them down, letting his magic sink into Alec’s skin where it beats a false staccato in place of his heart.  He traces the imprint with dark nails and then bends to place a kiss against cold lips.</p><p>“Come back to me,” he begs.  Because in this one instance he is not the man his grief created.  He is a wounded soul, as lost as Alec was in death. “Please, my love.  My darling, come back to me.”</p><p>He prays to a god he killed as he places Alec’s soul against his cool skins and washes away the murk of his crimes with tears as it settles into Alec’s body and waits for redemption in the form of Alec’s breath.</p><p>His husband lives.  And Magnus finds every moment between now and then, worth this one victory.  </p><hr/><p>The sun is a hesitant gold, as if unsure whether or not it is allowed to glow.  Magnus welcomes it by gently opening the blinds with his magic and propping himself up on his elbow to stare at Alec.</p><p>His husband lies sleeping, so peacefully that’s it the perfect picture.  But Alec has been too still of late and Magnus curls closer around him, soaking in Alec’s warmth and bringing him flush against him.  </p><p>Alec is warm and shivers against him only for a moment, then his nose scrunches up as if in protest and he turns his face to Magnus’ chest and presses even closer.  His hair is soft and silky and Magnus hums wonderingly. Despite a minor attempt to change the color of his nails, they seem forever changed by the tar of the abyss.  Even now, threading through Alec’s hair they catch the light and swallow it. </p><p>He doesn’t mind it.</p><p>It’s prophecy fulfilled. </p><p>The devastation he paid in fee, to bring Alec back to him, <em>forever.</em></p><p>“Magnus?”</p><p>His name on Alec’s lips, rasping from disuse and the sleep of the dead breaks the silence of a new dawn and it’s the sweetest most beautiful sound he’s ever heard.</p><p>“I’m here my love,” he promises. “Hello darling.  I’ve missed you.”</p><p>Alec smiles at him, confusion furrowing his brow as he presses closer still and his lips caress Magnus’ skin in a kiss, right above where Magus ripped out his own heart.  Magnus shivers from the gentle, affection soaked touch.</p><p>“I had the strangest dream,” Alec tells him sleepily and Magnus pets at his hair soothingly. </p><p>“Tell it to me?”  Magnus asks and Alec hums in agreement, stretching against him and smiling at him.  </p><p>Outside the window, the storm of rebirth caresses the terrain of Edom.  Thorns crack through the ground to grow around his reclaimed and rebuilt castle and a raven sits upon the tree that grew from Magnus’ blood.  They have all the time they need, in their new kingdom and a world built for their leisure.  </p>
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